Class Role Balance

I posted this a little bit ago in the Pirate subforums, but I thought about it some more and decided it was interesting enough to share here.

Obviously, there has been a move toward balancing classes lately. One interesting development is that Marksmen have been moved up to around BM strength, up from the melee class DPS area. Corsairs have also been buffed so their ship will break less easily (because people will actually want to invest points in it) and that their damage with Rapid Fire when their Ship breaks is still nearly as high as the damage of an average Hero or DrK, and higher than a NL without SE.

Wait, what? How is it fair that Corsairs without Battleship still do nearly as much damage as the strongest melee classes (assuming the boss is not weak to any elements), you say? Well, I think that Nexon Korea is trying to define the roles of classes at bosses better.

This is what the roles of every class at bosses in GMS looks like right now (may change as we get more high levelled Pirates):
NLs: main DPS class; outdamages pretty much everyone else
BMs: also a DPS class; provides the buffs that makes NLs strong
MMs: substitute for a BM where none is available
Corsairs: DPS, not common yet
Heroes: high damage; can take hits where ranged classes can't
DrKs: provides HB for ranged classes if necessary
Shadowers: provide Smoke; almost never get hit
Buccaneers: provide Time Leap and SI
Bishops: mob control with Gen, provides support (res, heal, HS)
Mages, Paladins: not used (much)

Kind of messy, but this is the MS we know and love/hate. Now, the new changes seem to be a reorganization of classes so that all similar classes can play the same role:

ALL Ranged classes: High DPS. Ranged classes are the strongest single-target attackers in the game by far, but are plagued by low survivability.
- BMs/MMs: provide increased damage for party, especially NLs
- NLs/Corsairs: staple attackers, even stronger than BMs/MMs

ALL Warriors: Mid DPS/tanks. Warriors deal a lot of damage, and can absorb hits where high HP is necessary and stay in place with Stance.
- Heroes/Paladins: staple attackers; Paladins (whom actually have a decent-sized hitbox with Blast now) are more useful when bosses have elemental weaknesses; and also provide Threaten, a minor boost to the run.
- DrKs: provide HB for ranged classes

Shadowers and Buccaneers: Low DPS, buff support. Still play the same role they had before, but they are now on more even ground in terms of damage (in that Shadowers have been buffed).

Bishops: Healing (Heal/Res), buff support, mob control. Same as before.

Mages: Still not used. DPS is about the same as Shadowers and Buccaneers, but they provide no buffs. This is the group that needs the most fixing.

I like the idea of categories/roles for each class. It's a good model, at least for the bosses that are typically tackled as a group. It falls apart when people try to solo. They either need to discourage solo jobs, or they need to provide more incentives to not be a DPS class (DPS classes gain the most experience, are generally considered to have the most important job, and to many they are the most fun to play). They need to do something about rewarding all helpers at bosses equally.

Any other ideas for how to make the whole role system work and still be fair to each group?